Health and Safety Update from the Director

(Click here for Chinese translation) (请翻阅后面的中文翻译)

The safety and welfare of our students, families and the entire Ram Nation community remains our primary priority. Following a number of board and leadership team conversations, we have determined that, unfortunately, the School will not be able to resume in-person educational instruction on March 2 as originally planned.

At this time, the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 virus spread and ongoing impact makes it very difficult to provide a specific date whereby we can ensure the health and safety of our community and return to in-person education delivery at our campuses. Therefore, we have adjusted our earliest possible date for resumption of in-person learning as March 16 pending further assessment by the Guangzhou Education Bureau and the Guangzhou Municipal Government. This decision is similar to the decisions of other international schools in Hong Kong and other cities of China. Please note, in this constantly evolving situation, the earliest possible resumption date of March 16 may be further extended.

In light of the current spread of the coronavirus infections, restrictions to travel within China, numerous health advisories, and the occurrence of flight cancellations, the current context makes this the safest course of action for our school community.

We encourage our community to remain flexible and to not make definitive plans regarding our return to school until further information can be provided. We commit to providing you an update regarding our projected date for resumption of in-person instruction no later than March 2.

We also realize that once we are able to return to in-person lessons back on our campuses in Guangzhou that some members of our community may find it difficult to travel back right away. Please know that the AISG Leadership Team is in the process of creating a learning transition plan to ensure support for all of our students and families upon their eventual return to Guangzhou.

In the interim, our comprehensive online learning program will continue until further notice. I want to thank the faculty, staff and parent community for their extraordinary efforts to ensure that our online learning is robust and impactful. At AISG we regularly say that a great education is a partnership between the home and the school and never has this truth been made more self-evident than during this current challenge. Thank you for all that you are doing. Ours is a truly connected community.

AISG’s Leadership Team remains in close contact with our community partners in Guangzhou, in particular, the Guangzhou Education Bureau, the Guangzhou Health Commission, the U.S Consulate, and Global Doctors to ensure the most up to date information is available to us.

The AISG Board of Governors and Leadership Team wish to express their sincere thanks to all parents and students for the great support and close cooperation we’ve received over the past number of weeks as the situation regarding COVID-19 continues to evolve. We know this is a hard time for our community and we want to thank you for supporting one another through this unprecedented crisis.

If you happen to have any questions, concerns or feedback, kindly email prepare@aisgz.org. Questions and comments shared with this email are brought to the Leadership Team for discussion and considered for future community updates. Your ongoing support, questions, and feedback are valuable to us!

Kind Regards,

Kevin Baker
Director
American International School of Guangzhou

 

尊敬的家⻓和监护人:

学生、家庭和我们全体Ram社区大家庭的安全和利益是我们首要考虑的重点, 经过董事会和管理层团 队深入沟通讨论研究以后,我们非常抱歉的通知您,学校确定,我们不能按照原定计划的3月2日恢复线 下授课教学。

此时,COVID-19新型冠状病毒肺炎传播的不确定性和持续的影响使得我们很难确定一个具体的日期来 保证我们社区的健康和安全,并恢复我们学校正常线下授课教育。因此,我们将恢复线下授课学习的 最早开学日期调整为3月16日,同时等待广州市教育局和广州市政府的进一步评估。这一决定与中国 香港的国际学校和其他城市的国际学校的决定一致。需要注意的是,在疫情不断发展的情况下,最早 可能恢复上学的日期3月16日有可能会进一步延⻓。

鉴于目前冠状病毒感染的蔓延,中国国内旅行的限制,大量的健康警告建议,以及航班取消的发生, 在当前的环境下,这是我们学校为保证社区利益采取的最安全的行动。

我们鼓励我们的社区成员保持灵活性,在得到进一步的信息之前,不要对我们的返校计划做出最终决 定。我们承诺在3月2日之前向您提供学校预计恢复线下授课的最新情况。

我们也明白,一旦我们确定能够返回广州校区上课的日期,我们社区的一些成员可能会发现很难⻢上 回去广州上课。请您放心,AISG管理层团队正在制定学习过渡计划,以确保学生在最终回到广州开学 时,学校能够提供学生和家庭所需的支持。

在此期间,我们全面的在线网络学习课程将持续进行,直至进一步通知。我要感谢全体教职员工和家 ⻓社区,感谢他们为确保学生在线学习活跃、有效而做出的非凡努力。在AISG,我们经常说,优秀的 教育离不开家庭和学校之间的伙伴合作关系,在当前的挑战中,这一真理变得更加不言自明。谢谢您 所做的一切。我们的社区是一个真正相互紧密联系的社区。

AISG的管理层团队与我们在广州的社区合作伙伴保持密切联系,特别是与广州市教育局、广州市卫生 健康委员会、美国驻广州总领事馆和环球医生,以确保我们获取最新的信息。 AISG董事会和管理层团队衷心感谢所有家⻓和学生在过去几周内对我们的大力支持和密切合作,目前 COVID-19新型冠状病毒肺炎的疫情仍在继续发展。我们明白,这是我们社区共同面对的艰难时刻,衷 心感谢你们,在这场前所未有的危机中彼此扶持。

如果您有任何问题、担忧或反馈,请发送电子邮件到prepare@aisgz.org。在此邮箱中收集的问题和建 议,将会提交管理层团队进行讨论,并考虑在社区更新中反馈。您持续的支持,问题和积极的反馈对 我们学校是非常宝贵的!

祝阖家安康,

Kevin Baker
Director
American International School of Guangzhou